If It Keeps On Rainin'
by Rednih
Summary: He knows the full extent of what silence contains. Timestamp for 'Vision,' and part of the 'Adam Lives!Verse.'


Disclaimer: 'Supernatural' and certain characters belong to Eric Kripke and Warner Brothers. No profit is gained from this writing—only, hopefully, enjoyment.

Takes place just after Now Adam and is set during 5.10, "Abandon All Hope."

Title from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks."

* * *

They tell him to stay put where he's at, and he says he will. Bobby claims he's fine, that they're all fine, that it will all sort itself out, but there's something in his voice. There's no mention of their angel friend, Castiel—or the demon girlfriend, Ruby, but he's not stupid. He knows the full extent of what silence can contain.

Silence is coming home one day and finding Mom in pieces around the upstairs bathroom. Silence is the man who's stopped by for a fatherly visit a grand total of three times showing up at the neighbors' house with a bag of Adam's stuff. Silence is John skipping out on him without a word because he's slowing him down. Silence is seeing Dean on his deathbed and then the next day being told John is dead and Dean's just fine. Silence is Sam going missing, Sam dead, Sam alive again, the big demon dead, and Dean having a year before he's dead—again. Silence is Dean dead. Silence is Dean still dead. Silence is Dean still dead and Sam off who knows where and Bobby drunk more than he's sober and the salvage yard going down the toilet because Adam's the only one left to run it. Silence is Dean dead for four months and then magically popping up like nothing happened and all three of them, Dean, Sam, and Bobby, pushing Adam out of the house and into the dorms at the U of M.

Silence is angels, seals, and the Devil and no one telling him until long after the fact. Silence is Dean getting the shit beat out of him and lying to all of them about Hell and no one telling him. Silence is Sam being a junkie and Dean and Bobby trying to get him clean and no one telling Adam. Silence is something big happening, something that looks a lot like the end of the world—and no one telling Adam one goddamn thing.

What aren't silent are the voice in Adam's head and the man in his dreams, the ones giving him migraines and getting him fired from the bar and making him fail all his classes and freak out in public. He's also pretty sure he's being followed by secret agent types in business suits, but he only ever manages to catches glimpses of them from the corner of his eye, and that's definitely crazy-person talk, so he keeps it to himself.

Soon, enough is enough. Months later, when they finally kick him out of school for being a crazy person, he goes crawling back home to Bobby's with as much crap as the Gremlin can haul, which isn't all that much really. He finally pulls up around seven in the evening and trudges to the door, mentally prepared for a moderate tongue lashing over having sold the Chevelle he and Bobby had fixed up, only to walk in on a half-assed party—and Bobby in a fucking wheelchair.

It's pretty much downhill from there.

* * *

"What the– what the hell is this?" he asks, pointing like a moron right at Bobby, who's in a wheelchair and isn't standing up. He sees movement and hears footsteps and turns his head, and there's Dean with Sam right behind him, and their expressions aren't what he needs to be seeing right now. "What the hell _is _this?!" he says again, only now he's shouting, and there are more people here than he'd first seen, and everyone's looking at him like he's a crazy person.

Or maybe they're looking at him like he's a stranger because he doesn't know half of them. Maybe both.

"Adam. . . " Dean says, his hands coming up and making that patting motion, that 'calm down' gesture that people use when someone's about to get violent. Adam knows that fucking gesture because he used it all the time at the bar and when he was helping out at the counseling center and when he'd go on the ward to check in with Dr. Ursand.

That's not a comforting gesture to Adam. It's the exact opposite.

"No," he says, cutting Dean off before he can say anything, before any of them can try and cover this up or make more excuses. "No, I asked a question, and I expect an answer." He then turns back to face Bobby and looks him square in the face before demanding, pointblank, "What the hell is this?"

A sigh. He gets a sigh and Bobby breaking eye contact and everyone around the place shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

"Are you– are you injured?" Adam asks, eventually. He looks at Bobby's legs, at how he's sitting in the chair. "Your legs aren't broken, and. . . "

"It was a self-inflicted stab wound," a deep voice interrupts, coming from the strange man standing in the kitchen doorway, "which occurred during demon possession." The others all turn and look at the guy too, who simply stares, unblinkingly, right at Adam. "His condition was made worse by the archangel Zachariah," the guy adds a few seconds later.

"It's permanent?" Adam asks, and he sounds like his voice is still breaking, constricted and weak. He turns back to Bobby and reads everything from the look on his face. "And you weren't going to tell me."

Another sigh. Another attempt at avoidance. More withdrawal. Bobby looks like a turtle trying to tuck himself back into a nonexistent shell.

"Why did I even come here?" he wonders aloud, laughing sharply afterward. Dean comes walking closer then, reaches out a hand to no doubt pull Adam in and give him a stupid, pitying hug that means nothing in the long run, but Adam shoves him away, pushes him in Sam's direction.

"Adam. . . " And this time it's Sam, and next it will be back to Dean, and they'll tag-team him into dropping it or giving up or whatever it is they want.

"When were you going to tell me, huh?" he barks at them, and they both wince, but it's nowhere near enough. "Never? Only if you had to? What if he died?" he manages to ask, and the last word comes out harsher and sharper than he'd intended, but the alternative is a whisper. He throws a hand in their direction again. "Would I get an invite to the funeral, or you just gonna burn him and pretend nothing happened?"

"For cryin' out loud," Bobby suddenly grumbles, "I ain't dead yet!" He glares at Adam. "So you can quit your damned bellyachin', all right?"

"Oh, no, you're not dead, just fucking paralyzed!"

Bobby's frown deepens, but he doesn't look away. Adam doesn't, either.

"Well," one of the women says into the silence, "this is all real touching, but would somebody mind making the introductions? I for one am a little lost here."

Adam glances over, and the older woman, the brunette, smiles back at him sadly.

Nobody says anything until Sam clears his throat. "Uh, this is Adam," he offers, which causes Dean to huff out a weak laugh. "Our brother. Or, half-brother. Uh, Dad– "

"Shut up, Sam," Dean says, sounding exhausted and only slightly amused. "I'm sure they've heard about that."

Then Bobby looks away from Adam again and reaches down to turn his wheelchair around. He then propels himself across the floor and right out of the room, leaving Adam standing there in the middle completely gobsmacked.

And that's when Adam hears the floorboards creak and immediately knows who it is. A hand on his shoulder and a warm presence at his side, and Dean says, "I think this calls for a drink—huh, Kid?"

Home sweet fuckin' home.


End file.
